Africa at the Internet Archive: Fire on the Mountain

Here we are starting Week 31 (!) of the African folktale recommendations, and I wanted to pick up with the topic of Ethiopian folktales from last week with another book by Harold Courlander: The Fire on the Mountain, and Other Ethiopian Stories. 

The book was later reissued under the title: The Fire on the Mountain, and Other Stories from Ethiopia and Eritrea after Eritrea gained its independence in 1991.

This book contains 24 stories, and the illustrations are by Robert Kane, including some full-page illustrations and some two-page spreads:

Courlander's co-author on this book is Wolf Leslau, one of the major African linguists of the 20th century and, together with his wife Charlotte Leslau, the author of a book of African folktales and also a book of African proverbs.

I have written many times about Harold Courlander at this blog, and here's a quick review of his many wonderful books that are available at Internet Archive!

The Crest and the Hide

by Harold Courlander

The Hat-Shaking Dance

and Other Tales from the Gold Coast

by Harold Courlander

and Albert Kofi Prempeh

Olode the Hunter

and Other Tales from Nigeria

by Harold Courlander

and Ezekiel Eshugbayi

Tales of Yoruba Gods and Heroes:

Myths, Legends, and Heroic Tales

of the Yoruba People of West Africa

by Harold Courlander

The Heart of the Ngoni:

Heroes of the African Kingdom of Segu

by Harold Courlander and Ousmane Sako

The Cow-Tail Switch

and Other West African Stories

by Harold Courlander and George Herzog

The King's Drum and Other African Stories

by Harold Courlander

Ijapa the Tortoise, and Other Nigerian Tales

by Harold Courlander and Ezekiel Eshugbayi

 A Treasury of African Folklore

by Harold Courlander

Africa at the Internet Archive: African Proverbs

For today's African proverb books (see all this week's posts on one page), I've selected two short proverb books available at Internet Archive that are fun for browsing, just getting a sense of the range of proverbs and how they work. 

The first is a new-ish book from 2003, published in South Africa: Words to the Wise: A Collection of African Proverbs by Julia Stewart.

The book is organized thematically, and each proverb is identified by affiliation, although there is no bibliography in the back to indicate any of the sources. So, this is a nice book for browsing, but not useful for research purposes.

Stewart is also the author of a much more substantial book (almost 600 pages compared to just 100 pages for the proverbs: Quotable Africa published in 2004. This book is also available at the Internet Archive! It's not related to folklore, but it is certainly a wonderful book to use to expand awareness of African traditions and thinkers: Stewart's Quotable Africa.

Like the proverb book, this one is also organized thematically, but unlike the proverb book it contains an extensive bibliography of sources.

The other proverb book for today, published in 1962, is entitled simply African Proverbs by Charlotte and Wolf Leslau. 

This book is organized by region but, unfortunately, as with Stewart's book, there is no bibliography of sources.

The Leslaus are also the authors of a very enjoyable collection of African folktales published in 1963, but that book also has no indication about sources, which means it makes for fun reading, but often raises questions which are hard to answer since it offers no leads to follow. Here is that book at Internet Archive: African Folk Tales.

Wolf Leslau was a famous African linguist who specialized in the languages of Ehtiopia; you can find out more about him in this obituary: In Memoriam Wolf Leslau. 

I'll be back tomorrow with yet more proverb books to browse and enjoy! :-)

Words to the Wise:
A Collection of African Proverbs

by Julia Stewart.

African Proverbs
by Charlotte and Wolf Leslau